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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

You guys keep asking for 'em, so who am I to deprive you of some rich schadenfreude?

What the bride wanted:

Personally I think the dripping ganache thing looks a little Sylar-esque, but it turns out that's intentional; the happy couple planned to use a Corpse Bride topper, and so wanted an elegant Gothic vibe.

Instead, they got more of a dumpy glazed-doughnut vibe:

[snickering] I'm sorry, but I think I'm in love with this photo. As you scroll down, first you see the incredulous expression on the bride's face (she's the one in green), and then...THE WRECK. Hah! Hoo boy, that's good stuff. In fact, I've been amusing myself by picturing a little thought bubble over her head, and filling in the blanks*. Hehheheh.

Fortunately she didn't let it ruin her big day, though: you can read the bride's account of everything on her blog here.

And here's a better view of the Wreckage:

Niiiice. That chocolate looks positively...crinkly. On the (literal) bright side, though, the blindingly reflective "rose leaves" prevented any of the guests from looking directly at the cake. See, Christiana M.? There's a silver lining to everything!

*But why should I have all the fun? Give me your best caption in the comments. The one that makes John giggle 'til he snorts wins!

WHY WHY WHY do these women NOT look at the baker's previous work before they order a WEDDING cake?? Wouldnt there be some indication that they would not be able to pull off the dripping ganache? or a stacked cake? OMG reflective leaves??? Who ARE these people!! My head is spinning, I need to sit down!

Hey where's that hissing noise coming from? It sounds like a beach ball deflating. Oh just great, first I get stuck with a hideous lime green dress, then my make up artist and hairstylist don't show up, and now this.... just great... okay Dante the weddings off. What do you mean you wanted to go to the mosh pit tonight anyways. You creep, here's your ring back. Oooh, oooh wait, it's stuck ( finally pulls free and throws it) Ooooooh look at my finger it's GREEN!!!!

Did they use "Magic Shell" ice cream topping for the wished for drizzle??? From the glance I got of the Bride's blog, she handled it alright - but I only say she is wrong in that many folks will remember the cake. Those will be Cake Artists and anyone that visits the bestest site ever: Cakewrecks!!! :) Vivat Wrecks! LOL! Wendy

You can almost hear the mother saying, "I knew something like this was going to happen the minute you said you wanted a gothic wedding cake instead of one of those beautiful cakes Kathie Lee and Hoda had on the 6th hour of The Today Show."

Hello everyone. It's me. The bride. Yes, that was my cake. Urgh, and I'd just about gotten over it too. Still, you can't complain about being featured on the most awesome site ever, even if it does involve everyone else being happy at my misfortune. I'm glad I could brighten up your day!

You know what the ironic thing is? I thought about submitting this to Cake Wrecks, and I DECIDED IT WASN'T WRECKY ENOUGH. Clearly I have no clue.

After the wedding I couldn't even be bothered to take this issue up with the bakery. Maybe I should send them the link to this page, though. So keep the nasty comments coming! Haha. On the up side, if you read my original post, the cake wasn't something I was hugely interested in, so if something had to go wrong it was the best thing that could! Obviously I would have liked an actual nice cake, but far better that than my dress getting messed up or someone important not arriving or something. And thank god for those awesome cake toppers, which everyone noticed and totally saved that cake's ass!

More captions, please. I love seeing what you guys come up with. And yes, my mother's face is priceless!

Mother: "I'm so sorry, Honey."Bride: "This looks nothing like the picture."Mother: "I'm really so sorry, Honey."Bride: "How hard is it to copy a picture?"Mother: "apparently for them, very."Bride: "This has to be a joke." Mother: "I'm so sorry, honey.."

Brides-maid: "We need a pound of frosting 2 dozen cupcakes and a yard of ribbon STAT!"

Actually I think this would make a fanastic cover(or inside cover) for Cake Wrecks book! just put their faces on, or in, the front and then put the bottom half of the picture on, or in, the back, I think it would grab my attention, and would not only spotlight a great wreck, but tell a "story" about what a cake wreck is, something that people stare at and go, "huh?"

I just feel so sorry for the bride... Reminds me of my grooms cake: speaking of which, I'll need to send it in to you if I even have a picture of it - it was stuck in the corner. I'm not one to like the ganache look, but there's only one word for that wreck:"Seriously!?"

Beyond the doughnut glaze look, I'm particularly impressed that the baker didn't seem to have much idea of what a wedding cake should look like. I checked the bride's blog post and she did specify that she wanted two layers instead of three, but I don't think she requested that the cake be much shorter and squatter than the one from the photo. If you cut the top layer off the inspiration cake, you'd still have an elegant edible structure that is taller than it is wide, as wedding cakes tend to be unless the happy couple asks for something else. Why the bakery took the initiative to make a dumpy little thing without ever being asked is beyond me.

Still, good for the bride for making the most of it and realizing that a wrecky wedding cake does not ruin the wedding and certainly does not ruin the marriage.

"Are you freakin kiddin me? Did you pay her?! I did leave her that pictures right? I mean seriously, does this look ANYTHING like that picture? Where is she, I'm gonna kick her in the forehead!"

The lady with the white thing in her hand is saying..."Well maybe it taste good, I mean let's just try to be positive, we can't do anything about it now. Here let me take my glasses off and see how it looks, oh see honey it looks fine without my -5.75 glasses on.

word verification-inounces...as inhow much chocolate did they use for that cake, tell me inounces not pounds please.

There is such a thing as you get what you paid for. The bride's original cake post: http://rubyslippersbride.blogspot.com/2008/09/let-them-eat.html

She went to a few places and scoffed at the "high" prices ($100-$300) and then went with a place that was cheaper saying, "go ahead and order the damn thing. I don't care about it anymore, I just want a CAKE and I don't even care what it looks like." You gotta remember you're not just paying for flour and eggs, you're paying for the expertise and time to bake, assemble, and decorate it.

This reminds me of my wedding cake experience. I am an artist so I drew pictures, gave them color swatches, written instructions.. The first thing my mom said to me when I walked toward the reception is, "You're gonna be mad!"The first picture of me with the cake I have my hand to my mouth with a hilariously incredulous look on my face.Thankfully, I got all of my money back for the cake since it was SO off.I have to dig up a picture of it eventually to submit.

@Corkdorkdan - I'm not going to deny that the cake was low down on my list of priorities, as I said on my blog. If you've planned a wedding, you'll know that there comes a point when you DO just feel like you don't care anymore, and say "what the hell". The bakery had pictures that looked good, and the baker was getting married right after me and had pictures of his own cake, so we went with them. Shrug. It's not necessary to throw the blame around...this site is for laughing at wrecks, not for pointing fingers and blaming people for getting wrecks.

Also, just a point in reference to the "high prices" - I'm not American, and converting directly to dollars from Rands doesn't really make sense, because it doesn't work that way in real life. 100 dollars might be the equivalent of, say 1000 Rands (it changes daily), but that doesn't mean 100 dollars is worth the same to you as R1000 is to me. Do you see? What I was quoted originally was a lot for a cake. Maybe not in dollars, but it was for me.

I went to that post and didn't see where she avoided cakes that were $100-300. I saw where she didn't want to pay $1000-$2000+ for a cake. Could you show me where she mentioned avoiding the $100-$300 cakes?

Based on the thatch-roofed venue and the reference to Durban, am I to assume this takes place in South Africa? If so, as a displaced South African I am stunned and mortified. We have a proud tradition of cake decorating, and even have a technique named after us. Sies man! Dis n slegte koek!

"Are you sure we have to use this as the cake? It looks like it'd make a mighty fine ring pillow."

I'm glad the bride was able to shrug this off. I'm just starting to plan for our wedding, and I'm getting jitters just looking at these. Then again, it wouldn't hurt if the cake did turn out to look horrible. I'd just send it to Cake Wrecks. ;-)

"Are you sure we have to use this as the cake? It looks like it'd make a mighty fine ring pillow."

I'm glad the bride was able to shrug this off. I'm just starting to plan for our wedding, and I'm getting jitters just looking at these. Then again, it wouldn't hurt if the cake did turn out to look horrible. I'd just send it to Cake Wrecks. ;-)

"I said I wanted the cake reduced to two tiers, not a cake that would reduce me to tears."

-----------------------------------

One reason why I eloped is that I probably would have been a lot like Ruby Slippers and said, "You know what? I don't feel like going crazy over the cake, so let's just get something that won't cost us an arm and a leg." And I probably would have ended up with something like this, too.

Makes you wonder what Ruby Slipper's baker's own wedding cake looked like. Maybe he did a sloppy job on hers because he was so preoccupied with his own and just rushed their order out at the last minute.

@RubySlippers - I just think it's important to compare apples to apples, give people context. The first thing I thought when I saw your cake was that this bakery was clearly not qualified to make the type of cake you wanted, not that they somehow didn't understand your request. I have that complaint about a lot of cakes I see on here, not just yours. And unfortunately, skills and experience to make something big and fancy cost money.

For the exchange rate thing, I know it's not exactly equivalent, but I didn't see any other way to get a grasp on how (un)reasonable the cake prices were. How does 1000 rand compare to what you would pay for a cheap grocery store cake?

@Haiku Joy: the bride is quoting South African currency in her post, not dollars. There's a conversion rate of about 10:1.

Okay, I've been to her blog and totally don't get the goth theme for the cake. There is NOTHING else in her wedding that suggests goth. Not her dress, her hairstyle, the venue, the groomsmens outfits. The hall decorations, the invitations...NOTHING!!!So why the goth cake????

corkdorkdan said... "The first thing I thought when I saw your cake was that this bakery was clearly not qualified to make the type of cake you wanted, not that they somehow didn't understand your request. I have that complaint about a lot of cakes I see on here, not just yours."

So, in your opinion, corkdork, when does the bakery have the responsibility to turn down an order that they know they shouldn't take?

What if the bakery has a book full of pictures of nice cakes? What if the bride shows them her picture and they assure her they can make it, instead of admitting that they can't?

Doesn't the bakery have the obligation to follow through on the contract, no matter what price they've agreed upon? Or do you think that any couple paying less than $300 deserves a crappy looking cake, just on principal?

Although Victor screwed up by buying silk flowers rather than pay for a real florist, and the rain caused a muddy puddle that got all over his bride's shoes, he was able to make it up to Emily on their wedding day by offering to submit their photo to her favorite blog, Cake Wrecks.

@corkdorkdan: I see your point that the baker turned out not to be qualified for this kind of job, but I wasn't to know that. If they had this kind of picture in their book I wouldn't actually have hired them! I agree with Gwen - so if a bride pays less than X amount for a cake, then she has to assume it's going to be a wreck? That's not fair.

A storebought cake that you find on regular shelves is usually about 40 or 50 Rand. That's just one tier, of course. That's why I couldn't fathom paying R2700 for a cake to feed less than 70 people!

@Judy: I wasn't trying to have a gothic theme (that was Cake Wreck's own assumption). The Corpse Bride thing was partly because of the *movie* theme we had, and just because it was cute and quirky. Oh, and also because our wedding was on Halloween. As for the cake, we just liked it. No ulterior gothic motive!

And for those of you who asked: It actually tasted great! So that was something.

quotes!bride: "ooh, how interesting! it's not what i asked for, but look at the patterns! all that black and white! and it's much bigger than i expected, too! if only we could get that brown-red-white lumpy thing off of it..."mother: "er... that's the table, honey. that... brown-red-white lumpy thing- that's the cake."bride: oh....

I think I sort of know what happened. The bride requested "two layers." Technically, that cake is two layers. However, she obviously mean to "tiers." To look like the photo, each cake would have several layers. The baker should have known better, or if there was some confusion, he should have called the bride to clarify. He obviously couldn't make a cake like the picture with only two layers. Well, if he were really skilled, maybe, but he's obviously not really skilled. However, despite the possible miscommunication, there's no excuse for the crackly ganache and ugly rosebuds.

@RubySlippers - Thanks for the clarification. I've never planned or paid for a wedding, so I don't know how expensive they are. The prices you quoted do seem pretty high.

I don't think that you should assume every cake under X dollars is a wreck, but it's reasonable to assume the level of skill and effort that goes into it are less than that of a more expensive one, especially if you get several quotes that are more expensive. When I buy a pair of headphones that are $5 they might work fine, but I assume that the other ones on the shelf that are all $20 are probably better.

@Gwen - I'm not sure the bakery ever has a responsibility to turn down a customer. No salesperson is going to turn down business, especially if the person making the sale is different from the one assigned to make the cake. However, I do think if the bride was not satisfied with her purchase, she has every right to a refund and the bakery has a responsibility to fulfill that obligation. I would point out in this case that the bakery made the right decision. It appears they made the sale, they provided an inferior product, they were never questioned about it, and didn't receive any bad press about it. If there's no consequence, why would they turn down the sale?

(And this is now going to be forwarded to the brides-to-be in my life--two of my friends are getting married soon, and I want to ensure they understand the importance of ensuring the baker knows what the heck they're doing.)

Firstly: I think the original cake was made with BUTTERCREAM by someone who knows how to use GANACHE CORRECTLY. The second was made with FONDANT by some who used cheap COUVERTURE and INCORRECTLY. Basically in a nutshell - they had no idea what they were doing!

And secondly :@verizonbeans who said: "Again, I beg you to stop putting asterisks in the copy then making us scroll all the way to the bottom of the post, then all the way back up. I hate that!"

I've only one thing to say to that - If you don't like the way Jen does her blog then don't read it. Go to another site. No ones nailed your little tail to the floor here.

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